I'll play, yeah I'll play

[aruan]

Except for a town-wide conspiracy to not feed us, a great time was had in Gainesville yesterday. The crew of Chop Stix turned out to be on vacation for a month, Dragonfly didn’t open until 5 p.m. (and Brandon is friends with the head sushi chef, too! Curses!) and Harry’s is undergoing major renovations, so we settled for On the Border’s spicy salsa and tasty Margaritas. It’s kind of embarrassing how little alcohol it takes to make me grabby and talkative.

But we had fun the whole way. Our musical tastes clash only about a fifth of the time, so the five hours of driving weren’t an issue at all (however, for the record, Central Florida is SO MUCH WEIRDER than you think. We’re making the trip again sometime soon just to take photos to prove it.) Amber had her way with my hair, which looks adorable once more – totally worth the drive. Had coffee with krissi518 and her fiancé, plus a couple of Brandon’s friends, at Maude’s, though good god with the mosquitos and a sad lack of ceramic mugs. We were even jumped and foisted gelato upon on the corner of Starbucks by a lovely girl from a new little shop a block away. Mmm, coconut.

As for the evening’s feature presentation, Pirates... really redeemed itself in the last hour. It was long by at least 30 minutes, especially the whole mess with the natives, which was frankly a bit insulting. And that’s the thing that soured me on this film, is that it had the charm of the original but lacked its style and cleverness. It relied on stereotypes and pratfalls for laughs, whereas the first one had scenes like the two guards arguing on the dock by the Interceptor, every exchange between Commodore Norrington and (Captain!) Jack Sparrow, and Geoffrey Rush was all elegance. God, at the end, I knew it was gonna be Barbossa coming down the stairs, but man was it nice to see him. And I think that’s what went wrong here, that while the first movie knew it was a pirate film, it took that job seriously.

Anyway, my point was that I didn’t laugh nearly as much this time around.

However, the special effects people again get all my everlasting love. The crew of the Flying Dutchman was incredibly creative – corals, shells, fish and crustaceans held together by barnacles and twisted into human form. Though, did Bill Nighy do anything but lend his voice to Davy Jones? Because that head of octopus was mondo impressive, but seemingly impossible to pull off without CGI. Though they lose full marks due to the Kraken, which looked fake enough to have come out of an episode of original Trek in those final shots.

And while we’re venting, BIG FUCKING PEEVE: There was exactly ZERO NEED to have Bootstrap Bill whip Will, for plot or character development purposes. I get why he stepped up, having read many an SGA story in which either Rodney or John steps up to deflower the other instead of one of the natives, the emotional fallout that creates, but this just screamed of gratuity.

Oh, and that ending on the Black Pearl? First, the kissing between Elizabeth and Jack frankly could not have been less sexy. Also, if Will couldn’t piece together why she did it from her reply to the question of the good captain’s whereabouts in the longboat, then he deserves to sulk in his own misguided misery. He does make that puppy face well (Brandon mentioned a review that said Keira Knightley spending most of the movie dressed as a boy is just as well, since no one is prettier than Orlando Bloom. Truer words, man.)

But at the end of the day, it is in fact mimesere’s disgraced commodore who PWNS ALL. Depp was great and swishy but wasn’t given nearly the quality material he had last time; not even the smart pirates escaped the swath of buffoonery that tarred so much of the movie’s appeal; and the two kids, well, they swing swords well, but what can you say that doesn’t involve criticism about too much acting with their mouths? However, Jack Davenport had such wonderful range, from stumbling drunk to remorseless traitor, but oozing this awesome, quiet dignity the whole time. Elizabeth did an insane thing at the end – as much as I love Jack – smart and brave, but he was consistently AWESOME.

Brandon also slept over for the first time last night. I’d never slept slept with someone I was also sleeping with (oh, idioms), and can now see both the benefits and pitfalls of such an arrangement. However, waking up this morning was worth it, but I’ve made an executive decision to spare you the particulars of my sex life.

Comments

spoilers

[whynotsaylove.livejournal.com]

the dillema is in that elizabeth's compas pointed to jack on the island. so people are now wondering if she wants jack somehow. the kiss was obviously to tie him to the boat, but her sobfest at the end is hard to justify (i figured it was guilt for killing a man/friend).

Re: spoilers

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

See, and the thing I read into Elizabeth holding the compass and having it point to Jack was more of her latent desire toward romantic notions of piracy rather than Jack himself. Jack is freedom and the open sea and adventure, but she loves Will, she made that clear at the end when she shackled Jack to the mast. And I agree, I think the sobfest at the end was guilt over what she did to a friend, specifically how she tricked him into it.

P.S. Love the icon.

Re: spoilers

[whynotsaylove.livejournal.com]

i just saw an interview with orlando who says something about unrequited love in the second film. so color me confused, but i still want to think any attraction elizabeth has to jack is only in the ideas of freedom he can provide, kind of like you said. and thanks, the icon was a gift. :)